The nine-coloured deer furrowed her brows slightly. She could vaguely feel that there was something off about Li Qingshan’s tone, but when she thought a little more about it, this kid had always possessed quite a temper. He must have been furious after the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance had made such accusations. He was definitely off to face that old turtle and clear his name.
Hehe, with his current cultivation, he’s probably no weaker than that old turtle. The old turtle is probably in a lot of trouble this time!
However, she also developed some doubts. The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance and her were both natural spirits, so she understood how exceptional spirit turtles were much more than humans. Human cultivators required several years of arduous study and practice to learn divination, yet it was an instinct that spirit turtles were born with. It was basically as natural to them as swimming.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance has always been careful and prudent. If he doesn’t have absolute confidence in something so major, he’d never make it known to the public like this and damage the reputation of the Myriad sect for nothing. Why would he make a mistake like that!
However, when she looked at Ruan Yaozhu again, she leaned against Li Qingshan in his arms. She bore no resemblance to the master of the Hundred Herbs garden anymore. She was clearly a woman who had found someone to rely on. When she heard that, she let out a gentle sigh of relief as she smiled away with her blushed face, having stopped worrying completely. She was certain Li Qingshan would properly explain everything to the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance and resolve this colossal misunderstanding. She had even become a little complacent.
Sigh, you dumb piece of wood. It really is a tribulation of attachments! A tribulation of attachments!
Given the current circumstances, the nine-coloured deer obviously could not mention her doubts. She could only hope that her deepest and greatest worry would not come true.
Li Qingshan suddenly changed the topic. “But before that, do you want to hear my story, Yaozhu?”
“Okay.” Ruan Yaozhu nodded before suddenly yelping out.
As it turned out, Li Qingshan had lifted her up in his arms and arrived between some flower bushes, sitting down on the ground.
Ruan Yaozhu was completely embarrassed. She could not help but put up a struggle and call out, “Let go of me, senior brother!”
The nine-coloured deer stomped her foot furiously and thought, Which man would let go of you when you act like that?
Li Qingshan whispered into Ruan Yaozhu’s ear, “Stop moving around. Let me finish.”
His deep voice seemed to possess a certain charm or power. Sure enough, Ruan Yaozhu stopped struggling, blinking her eyes and gazing up at him.
This was the perfect combination between the path of the devaputra-māra and the power of a god. His words were like the law and everything obeyed it. Every single action he made possessed endless charm. Every word he spoke was as undefiable as a decree, enough to influence any Yang Soul cultivator.
Of course, it was also because Ruan Yaozhu had absolutely no intention of resisting him right now. She believed in Li Qingshan unconditionally, and she was currently experiencing an upheaval of emotions from reuniting after so long. She was truly in disarray.
“In the beginning, I did not go to the Demon domain. Instead, I was taken to Sukhāvatī, and I was even made a sangharama guardian…”
When Li Qingshan began to describe everything he had been through, Ruan Yaozhu gradually forgot about her embarrassment, becoming engrossed in his story. Li Fengyuan and the nine-coloured deer’s ears pricked up uncontrollably too, listening along quietly.
Sukhāvatī had always been a world of wonders, while everything that Li Qingshan experienced in Sukhāvatī was even more bizarre and unbelievable.
Everyone present could sense it. Beneath Li Qingshan’s indifferent voice was an emotion that could not be put into words. At times, he was like a sombre old man describing matters from many years ago, yet at other times he sounded as naive as a child, innocently unaware of the right and the wrong, the good and the evil that the world had to offer.
When they heard how he went as far as to undergo rebirth and lose all of his memories to resist the influence of Sukhāvatī, everyone worried for him, but they also felt like that was something that Li Qingshan would do. When they heard how he was adopted by an old couple and named “Eggborn”, everyone smiled, strangely finding the name very fitting.
Before they knew it, the final ray of light vanished from the sky. The curtain of night descended.
As the story progressed, “Eggborn” finally set off on his journey to the Great Thunderclap temple. Everything was like fate. The audience was engrossed in the story. Even the surrounding trees and shrubs seemed to be listening along.
Li Qingshan had once been a disciple of the school of Novels, except he could not help but admit that he was not particularly successful in this area. All he had done was copy famous works from his past life, even getting Xiao An to edit it and spruce it up. In simpler words, the stories did not belong to him, but the one right now was the most fascinating story he had told so far, one that completely belonged to him.
The moon reached its zenith, sprinkling with its silver light.
“Li Qingshan, what are you doing!?”
There was a sudden shout. The nine-coloured deer stared straight at Li Qingshan furiously, or more accurately, at Li Qingshan’s left hand, which had snuck its way to Ruan Yaozhu’s side.
Ruan Yaozhu was confused, like she had just woken up from a dream. She was still engrossed in the story—everything that Li Qingshan went through in the Demon domain was even more bizarre and startling than Sukhāvatī. She still wanted to find out whether Li Qingshan had managed to break free from Heretic God Jiuying’s maze and how he would defeat Demon God Qiongqi…
“Sure enough, a spirit of nature! I haven’t even finished my story yet!” Li Qingshan shook his head in some pity. “But it’s quite late now. Let’s stop here for today!”
“Jiu’er?” Ruan Yaozhu blinked her eyes. She looked at the nine-coloured deer before looking at Li Qingshan again, still unaware of what had happened.
Before anyone had realised it, Li Fengyuan had shut his eyes again, unwilling to see everything that would occur next.
Li Qingshan raised his left hand slowly. He held a queen of the night in the centre of his palm. The thin, pure-white petals slowly bloomed in his hand, like he had casually plucked it from somewhere, except none of the shrubs and bushes around him were queens of the night.
The queen of the night was unlike any regular spiritual herb. Every single one of its petals was of identical size, and the distance between petal to petal was the same down to the very millimetre. It formed a total of three layers with twenty-four petals in each, amounting to seventy-two in total.
The formation of the Hundred Herbs garden was known as the Seventy-two Pentads formation.
As mentioned in the classics of history, “Five days form a pentad, three pentads form a solar term, six solar terms form a season, four seasons form a year.”
A year had twenty-four solar terms, which was further divided into seventy-two pentads.The purpose of the Seventy-two Pentads formation was to regulate the climates throughout the Hundred Herbs garden meticulously, allowing the wondrous plants of different natures to flourish together. Those were the origins of its name.
As the foundation of the Myriad sect, the Hundred Herbs garden’s Seventy-two Pentads formation was far mightier than the Xuanming dwelling’s Xuanming formation. Meanwhile, this queen of the night with seventy-two petals was the core formation disc, as well as the symbol that represented the master of the Hundred Herbs garden.
Ruan Yaozhu touched the sumeru ring on her finger. Sure enough, the queen of the night was not there. She panicked inside as if a step she took had just fallen through and right beneath her was the abyss.
She broke free from his embrace and forced out a smile. “Qingshan, stop playing around. I can’t give you that, even if you’re the first senior brother.” Her tone was almost pleading. The nine-coloured deer felt like her heart was about to shatter, staring straight at Li Qingshan.
However, Li Qingshan was unfazed. He stared at the queen of the night in his hand. A wisp of darkness emerged from the pistil, spreading outwards and dyeing the pure-white petals black.
The Seventy-two Pentads formation was very complicated. Even after becoming a god, this was only a clone after all. He could not refine it without a good while.
However, apart from the master of the Hundred Herbs garden and the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance, there was one other person completely familiar with the Seventy-two Pentads formation—the master of the Department of Heavenly Dwellings, Pi Yangqiu.
The nine-coloured deer said furiously, “Piece of wood, stop being a fool! He’s trying to steal your Hundred Herbs garden! He’s demonified already!”
Li Qingshan seemed to be directing all of his focus to refining the “queen of the night”. He could no longer maintain his disguise anymore, releasing dense demon qi that was even darker than the night, completely blotting out the brilliant moonlight. Even his figure was swallowed by the darkness. His eyes shone with scarlet light.
Within the depths of the darkness were the painful and sorrowful whisperings of billions of demonfolk. He did not seem to reside between the bushes anymore. Instead, it seemed like he was sitting high above a sea of blood.
“No, you wouldn’t!” Ruan Yaozhu shook her head slowly. Tears streamed down her face.
Li Qingshan looked up at her and sighed as if he was saying, Yaozhu, this is the ending to the story.
The queen of the night in his hand had been completely dyed black.
